Aviat Husky Crashes During Testing

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An Aviat A-1C-200 Husky registered to the manufacturer went down near Grover, Wyoming, on Monday. The pilot reportedly sustained minor injuries after successfully bailing out and deploying his emergency parachute. According to Aviat, which is based in Afton, Wyoming, the aircraft was involved in experimental flight testing.

“Aviat Aircraft Inc., is fully cooperating with the FAA and NTSB in their investigations into the incident,” the company said in a statement. “Aviat Aircraft Inc., is also conducting an investigation into the event and will release more details at a later date.”

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Star Valley EMS and Afton Volunteer Fire Department responded to the accident, which occurred at approximately 1:30 p.m. local time on Aug. 10. No post-crash fire was reported, although the wreckage was sprayed down as a precaution. The cause of the crash is not yet known.

Kate O'Connor
Kate O’Connor works as AVweb's Editor-in-Chief. She is a private pilot, certificated aircraft dispatcher, and graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

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11 COMMENTS

  1. Appears to be a mostly vertical impact component. What maneuver was being tested to necessitate a bailout of a Husky? Hope more details are made public soon.

  2. Yes the Pilot is safe.. Very good.. Flight testing with a parachute.. Good.. But, what in the heck would cause someone to bail out of a single engine taildragger…? Spin training in pre-certified aircraft happens all the time, and I have never heard of someone bailing out..

    • Well, Cessna lost two Skycatchers during pre-production testing. The first was during spin testing, with the pilot bailing out. The second utilized the BRS to lower the airframe and pilot.

    • There are a ton of different things that could have happened on an aircraft undergoing flight test. Flight control malfunction, fire, seat failure, loss of control of many different kinds, bird strike, structural failure… there are a lot of cases in which it would be safer to bail out than to ride it in, if you have the option.

    • My previous comment reminds me.
      Not too long ago, AVweb had an article where 2 Canadian military jets were climbing out & one of them pitched up rolled over & crashed.
      One survived. A LOT of speculation went on there & my comment was,
      “Ask the pilot why he pitched up” – anyway, did anyone find an answer?

      • Accident investigations aren’t as simple as “ask the pilot what happened”. The pilot can tell you what they were intending to do through the various phases of the accident, and they can explain their decision making. But they can’t always tell you exactly what happened through the sequence (memory and human senses are fallible), and they can’t tell you why it happened (they don’t know why the engine quit, or why the regular spin recovery procedure didn’t work, or why they got a warning light, or why the avionics started smoking, or…). For that reason, we need the investigation.

        We will know about this one when the NTSB report comes out (assuming they’re actually investigating it), and we will know about the Snowbird crash when the DFS report comes out. In the meantime, pilots like to speculate, and a certain amount of speculation is healthy.

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